This content provides a practical guide to "dialing in" espresso, focusing on how to adjust brewing variables for different types of coffee beans and roasts to achieve optimal taste. It challenges traditional espresso brewing methods, particularly for lighter roasts and specialty coffees, emphasizing balance and flavor over high pressure and crema.
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What's up everyone? Lance Hedrickk here
and today we're going to dial in
espresso. So, when I'm looking at these
beans now, I've done a video like this
in the past, but with pourovers where I
took six different coffees and I showed
you how I approached dialing in each
one. Got a lot of good feedback. People
wanted another. So, we're going to do it
today with espresso. Now, I've got five
different coffees that we're going to go
over and dial in today. So, there will
be time cues below if you're wanting to
skip to a certain style of coffee. But,
let's get right into it. First, we have
this coffee from Kopi. It is a washed
pink barbone from El Placer in Colombia.
Now, this is a Nordic style roast, so
it's on the lighter end of things,
though it's not ultra light. It's more
on like that light, borderline medium to
light kind of coffee. So, this is going
to be a nice representation of what a
lot of you are drinking at home. This
was roasted just a couple of weeks ago,
so it's pretty fresh and will be a nice
initial example.
Next, we have a coffee from Aviary. It's
a washed gisha from Maria and Nevis. So,
this will be a nice example for the
ultralight fans in the crowd. Next, we
have this coffee from Onyx Coffee Lab in
the EU. It's a netor lasso omligon. It
exemplify what to do when you're
approaching a really heavily processed
coffee, whether that's a co-erment or a
heavy anorobic natural or something
along those lines. So, that will be
representative of that. We also have
this washed Kenya coffee from the
Godshot. They're on the lighter end of
the spectrum with that Nordic style of
roast similar to Kopi, but this one is
about 5 months off roast. So, this will
be representative of brewing older
coffee or more aged coffees because
there is a slightly different approach
when you have an older, more off-gass coffee.
coffee.
And then finally, we've got the darling
of the channel. This is Saka's Crema.
Now, this is a blend of Arabica and
Rabusta, and it is on the darker end of
things. This is a roastery based out of
Napoli in Italy. So, it's more of an
Italian style of espresso. That being
said, it's not super dark. There's not
oil on the beans, but this will kind of
give you an idea of how to approach a
darker roasted coffee. So, for those of
you expecting kind of thick, voluuptuous
drops of espresso with heavy crema, I
definitely recommend going to this one
because none of these will kind of show
you that. These are more modern styles
of coffee. This one will be more of a
traditional approach to espresso.
Now, I'm using a DF64 grinder. So,
hopefully this is something that can be
relatable to a lot of you. Uh, but of
course, if you have a niche or something
along those lines that might be conical,
you're going to have the same approach,
just a different window of dialing in.
Flatbirds are notoriously a bit more
difficult to dial in. So, I figured we'd
use this so that you can get a good idea
of how to approach these coffees. On the
espresso machine side of things, I have
a Prophet Go. It's a single boiler
machine. It is PID controlled, but I
have it set at 90°. I will not be
changing that setting because many of
you don't have PI controlled machines.
So, we'll just keep it at a constant
pretty typical temperature of 90 Celsius.
Celsius.
Now, there are times to go above and
below if you're someone that has a
machine that has those capabilities. My
recommendation would be for these three
coffees to go to a lower temperature.
The darker your roast, the cooler you
should go. And it's because more
bitterness is going to come off at
higher temperatures. They are more
soluble. They tend to produce a lot more
fines when you're grinding them because
they're a lot more brittle. So overall,
darker roasted coffees, I recommend sub
Now, when you have a heavily processed
coffee such as this, it tends to get
gross kind of quickly. And one of the
easy ways to save that off is to lower
the temperature quite a bit. They're
very soluble, especially the flavors
that you're wanting to get. Largely,
what you're looking for with heavily
processed coffees are those processed
notes. So, when you push the extraction
too high, you're going to get a much
more imbalanced cup that's not as tasty.
I would highly recommend a lower
temperature for those, but will make do
with 90° without issue.
And then finally, when you have a an old
coffee, something that's off roast quite
a bit and you notice that it's going a
lot faster in the extraction because the
carbon dioxide has been gone. Well, I
recommend lower temperatures for that as
well. Whenever you have a really old
coffee, it seems to go faster into the
extraction than if it were a fresher
roast. And the reason for that again is
that carbon dioxide loss. When you lose
carbon dioxide, which is one of the main
things that gives us resistance in our
puck beyond grind size, you're going to
have a faster shot and it's going to be
able to get inside of the grounds and
diffuse more efficiently and more
quickly. So, I recommend a lower
temperature for older coffees. But
again, 90° is what we're doing today.
Now, for those of you that stress out
about maximizing temperature for your
light roasts, I actually don't
necessarily agree with that. I don't
like coming at it from a really hot
temperature. you get more bitterness
more easily with hotter temperatures
than you do if you were to find a
different way to extract more like more
yield. So, I don't necessarily recommend
you ever really need to go higher than
about 93 or 94. But, if you want to with
something that's ultra light, that is
definitely going to help you with
extraction, though I don't think it's
necessary. I'm going to get stellar
shots of this using 90°.
I'll also be using a 58mm basket because
it's a 58mm machine. And the depth of
the basket, it's rated to 18 grams. We
don't really need to pay too much
attention to the grammage. It's more
based off volume. You could fit 18 g of
a dark roast versus a light roast and
there's going to be two different
volumes in there. What we really need to
do is essentially fill up the basket as
much as possible without having a screw
indent or a screen indent on the dry
puck. So, if you put your puck in and
you pull it out without water touching
it and you have indentions from the
screen or the screw, you have too much
coffee in there. You want to go just
below that. Now, if you notice there is
an indention after your extraction,
that's absolutely okay. The puck does
not expand during extraction. I promise
you this. What happens is at the end of
the shot when you stop the machine and
the solenoid valve opens, it causes the
puck to jump. It causes the puck to
expand then. So, pressure is being
pushed onto that puck. And then at the
end when you release the pressure, the
puck will go up. I pulled this grinder
out of the basement. It's been a couple
of months since I've used it. And last
time I used it, it was for filter. So,
the first thing I like to do is find
where burp is, unless you know where
that is based off of your grinder. So, I
start it. I go slowly.
Oh, there's bur. So, what I like to do
with this grinder is I'll go a few
numbers off of bur and then I'm going to
grind a couple of beans just to see
Now, what I like to do is I'll put those
grounds in my hand and I kind of pinch it.
it.
Now, the ideal is that there will be
kind of uh peaks that form where your
fingers are. Unless they're wet, then of
course it's going to clump up a ton. But
you want to pinch it. Now, if you see
your fingerprints in the pinch, you're
too fine. You're too dusty on the grind
size. So, what I like to do is pinch. If
I have fingerprints, I'll go a little
coarser. Now, you want it to have this
Now, I know that's a weird thing to
show, but it's because you want to have
that kind of grainy, like sandy type of
sound to it. If you don't, you're too
powdery, you're too fine. It's much
easier to get to a good shot when you
start coarser. You have more even flow
through the puck. Even if it looks ugly,
even if it looks like it's channeling a
ton, it is a more even flow than the
finer you go. The finer you go, you may
be able to cover up some of the
heterogeneity of the water going through
the puck, but I promise starting a
little coarser. And going finer, you'll
find Tasty Town much more quickly.
So, let's go ahead prep our shot of
espresso with this current grind size.
We'll see what it pulls at, and we'll
make adjustments from there. I'm going
to use 19 g because I know that with
this basket, that's going to be right at
Keep in mind that with lighter roasted
coffees, you will have to go finer than
darker roasted coffees. Now, this is
again a blanket statement. There could
always be exceptions to the rule, but
that is largely what is going to happen.
Lighter roasted coffees are not as
easily extractable as darker roasted
coffees. In addition to that, lighter
roasted coffees will always have a more
unimodal particle distribution than a
darker roasted coffee. And that is
because when you grind up a really dark
coffee or just a darker coffee, those
brittle beans are going to produce a lot
more fines during the grinding process.
Those microscopic particles and those
create a ton more resistance in the puck
than a lighter roasted coffee will
because they're much more firm, much
more dense. They're not going to create
nearly as many fines. So, your overall
particle peak needs to be finer with a
lighter roasted coffee than with a
darker roasted coffee. Let's go ahead
start our shot.
Now, I'm aiming for a 1 to 2 and 1/2
ratio here. With lighter roasted
coffees, I tend to like a little bit
bigger ratios in order to ensure I have
proper amount of extraction. So, as you
see, we're only really hitting about two
bar of two bar of pressure and we got
right at 1 to 2 and 1/2. Just because
it's a really coarse grind, just because
we're not really building pressure
doesn't mean the espresso is going to be
bad. In fact, it could be exactly what
that coffee needs. you're someone that
enjoys traditional coffee, thick crema,
this is not going to be the style of
espresso extraction for you. This is low
crema, fast flow, not as thick of a
body, though the mouth feel should be
very pleasant because mouth feels not
just crema. Okay, let's take a sip. It's
very acidic. This has a really nice
sweetness to it and there's there's like
a graham cracker sweetness to it that's
very nice. Um, but it is a smidgen on
the like sour side. So, what I would do
here is I can either go a little finer,
allow it to be exposed to a bit more
pressure, allow a bit more of that
extraction, or I could extend the ratio.
What I'm going to do is go a bit finer
though, mostly because I know a lot of
you prefer higher pressure shots, or
you're still in this mindset of two bar
isn't espresso, which is absolutely
fine. I think personally, I would
probably just push the ratio here and
keep the grind size because I find that
it's actually quite nice. It just needs
a little bit more of the later
extraction and not necessarily for the
extraction itself, but for a little bit
more dilute coffee to come into the cup
and to balance out that really intense
acidity. As you continue to extract past
about 18%, a lot of those acidic
compounds, the ones that we are noticing
as acidity, I should say, they begin to
wayne and different types of acids come
out that will contribute more to
bitterness and things like that. So,
it's going to continue to help us with
balance as we push that ratio. So, maybe
closer to 1:3 or even 1:3 and 1/2 would
be better, but what I'll do is go a bit
finer. This will also make a fix, though
it may introduce some bitterness from
going finer that I don't necessarily
prefer, but we'll go ahead and do that.
Get it closer to a six bar shot. See how
Okay, so we've gone finer on the grind
size. We're still going to shoot for the
1:2 1/2 ratio. We'll see what time it
comes out in and all that good stuff.
All right, we still have a pretty quick
shot. Not surprising. And so, we went up
to about six bar, but now it's descending.
descending.
So, pretty nice naturally declining
pressure profile. There you go. So, that
one pulled in just 17 seconds. Now, for
some of you, that's going to freak you
out. Some of you, you understand that
turbo shots are kind of a a good
approach to doing your lighter roasted
coffees. So, a lot more crema on this
one because we went a lot finer. We were
able to build up a bit more pressure.
I'm going to assume this will be a
really nice shot. Unless we need a
No, that's pretty much perfect. It's
quite acidic, this coffee is, but it's
not sour anymore. It has a really nice
balance. So, you're getting a really
intense pop of like grapefruit. You have
some really nice uh sweet kind of
tangerine and there's like that graham
cracker sweetness about it that makes it
a nice cup. And uh in order to see if
I'm blowing smoke or not, we're going to
have our boy Ugo try the espresso and
Nice. Yeah. Yes. There you go. I was not
expecting that. You hear that? We got
the Ugo stamp of approval. With this
coffee being a light kind of Nordic
style coffee, I do recommend definitely
faster shot times. I never really go
over 20 22 seconds when I have a Nordic
style coffee because I find they get a
lot more bitter. They have a more
unpredictable extraction. And when you
go that fine, again, you're going to
introduce more bitterness into that
final cup. I like to go as coarse as
possible and try to find where the
balance sits with coarser grinds as
opposed to finer. So that's where we're
sitting at with this copi. About a
17-second shot, a 1 to two and a half
recipe. So it was like 19 a little over
19 grams in, about 48 out, and we're
It's very nice.
All right, so next up we have the ultra
light geisha. So this is going to be a
much more dainty coffee, more complex,
more nuanced. We don't want to push it
even as hard as we did the last one
because it is a bit lighter roast and
because it's a gisha which tends to be a
lot more volatile in the extraction, a
lot weaker puck integrity. I'm going to
assume that this will pull a bit faster.
So, this is going to be probably too
coarse to build up much pressure. But
when I have these really light coffees,
I don't really like building much
pressure at all. This will be
counterintuitive, but I like to go even
lower temperature, bigger yield when I'm
using a normal espresso machine. So,
this will build some pressure. There
will be some crema, but it's going to be
a very thin shot overall, assuming that
my, you know, assuming that the
lightness of this coffee is going to
offset any other variables between the
coffee itself, the variety itself, etc.
I'm going to be going closer to a 1 to 3
and 1/2 style of ratio. So, I'm going to
do 19 g dose and we're going to put pull
out somewhere close to 70 g of coffee.
Wild, I know, but we're going to see how
it goes. Just from grinding it, I can
tell this is quite a bit lighter. So,
this should flow through relatively
quickly, uh, even in comparison to the
last one. And I'm going to anticipate
not much pressure being built up at all.
So, this is going to be similar to like,
um, similar to some of the profiles
people do on more advanced espresso
machines like the Descent that aren't
really planning on building a lot of
pressure. Considering this machine gives
me about 4 and a half grams a second,
this should be a decent shot. Around 25
seconds, I would imagine, um, with how
big of a yield we're doing. But, we'll
All right, so water's going over the
puck. It's getting in through. And there
we go. So, we're building pressure up to
about one and a half to two bar. And
we're just going to let it run.
Now, I know this is anathema to a lot of
you watching. You are saying that is not
espresso. What are you doing? All right.
All right, so we went just over 70 g in
about 20 seconds right on the dot. Just
like with everything else when it comes
to manual brew, there are certain
coffees that do better with certain
styles of brewing. When using an
espresso machine, I don't necessarily
think that traditional recipe ranges and
expectations taste very good with ultra
light coffees, especially when you're
trying to retain florality, certain
types of aromomas, and things like that.
So, I air on the side of lower contact
time and a faster flow rate with coarser
grounds to give me the best a coffee can
really give. So, I'm going to stir this
up. When you have a bigger yield, the
coffee will be hotter. And it's because
the puck can only retain so much heat.
So, as it continues to extract, it's
going to get hotter and hotter and
hotter into your cup. With a yield this
big, this is going to be pretty hot. But
anyway, let's take a sip of something
And honestly, I think we probably nailed
that first try. I'm salivating. I'm
sorry if I spit a little bit. That is
Our taste test for Ugo.
You like Yes. He's smiling. He has a big
grin on his face.
Floral, sweet, tealike. It's got a very
silky mouth feel. It's not very heavy
because we don't have a ton of like
emulsification going on. We don't have a
ton. We don't have a lot of crema. It's
just a really balanced tasty drink.
Nespresso, you have, you know, you're
doing like a 1 to8 ratio whenever you're
using an espresso capsule. So, it's not
really espresso. It's not filtered
coffee. It's somewhere in between. This
would be kind of like a specialty, an
elevated form, I guess, of that because
we're using freshly ground coffee,
really nice coffee, and we're aiming for
a a you know, a different type of
beverage than just your typical stout espresso.
And as it cools, the acidity pops even more.
more.
That is that's like drinking hot juice.
That is that is that's very good.
Next, we're going to do this igon. Now,
this is a heavily heavily processed
coffee and it's a very unique variety
called Ombon. So, with this, I'm going
to want to have again a similar approach
where I'm not really pushing the finness
as much as possible. You want to go
cooler. You want to go coarser. I know
I'm breaking a lot of stereotypes. I'm
breaking a lot of rules, but that's
because you have to with these types of
coffees in order to have a balanced cup.
A lot of you have ordered heavy
processed coffees and all you get is
salt, sour, and it's not very good. And
it's because you're going so freaking
fine that the the extraction if you're
wanting to maintain nine bar is going to
be very very very difficult to have
evenness, right? So the finer you go,
the more difficult it is for water to
travel through, the more prone you are
to channels and to heterogeneity in that
water column going through the puck.
That's going to cause very imbalanced
shots. So again, I cannot stress enough,
cooler water will help you retain a lot
of that flavor you're wanting. And being
gentle with the extraction is going to
help you not get to that really intense,
bitter, acurid area. So, we're going to
go ahead see where this is at on the
same grind size. Yet again, this is a
little darker though, so I expect the
pressure to build up. But anyway, let's
go. We'll go a little less than 19. I
will do 18.8 because I expect this to be
a bit more voluminous in its expression
Wow. Grinding that, it smells like grape
candy. That is such an intense smell.
Let's go ahead and get this shot ready.
Now, due to this being a bit darker
roast, a bit more or a bit less dense of
a coffee, I expect there to have been
more fines produced in it. I expect the
pressure to go up a bit more. It is a
well-rested coffee, so there's not a ton
of carbon dioxide in there, but it has
been fully sealed, so we'll see where
All right. So, we've built up to full
pressure right around nine bar and it is
coming down.
I'm going to shoot for about a one to
two, just over one to two. And so, there
we have it. So, it went down to about
seven bar by the end, which you would
expect because light roasts have lower
puck integrity than darker roasts. So,
it's going to be a bit harder to
maintain that. And this is a bit lower
water debit than a lot of machines at
about 4 1/2 g a second. So that allows
us to lose pressure a bit more rapidly
than some of your machines might. If you
have a machine that has an 8 g a second
or 7 g a second, it might retain or it
might maintain pressure a bit longer.
But anyway, let's go and give this a sip.
sip.
Woo, that is intense.
It definitely could use more extraction.
Now, I don't think that it would benefit
going finer. I think really the only
call the only thing here we could do is
actually either go coarser and probably
retain the same yield, which I know
sounds counterintuitive, but I don't
necessarily think that this is sour
because it's under extracted. In fact, I
would I would bet that the overall
extraction is probably around a 20%. I
think the issue here and the reason it's
sour isn't due to under extraction. The
fact that it built up to nine bar with
this coffee, I think, is telling me that
it's so fine that there's likely parts
of the bed under extracted and parts
over extracted. So, either we could go
coarser, maintain the same yield, and
see if it tastes better. And in that
case, we probably won't hit nine bar at
all, or we could just extend the yield.
My fear always with extending the yield
on something like a heavy processed
coffee is that you'll extract too much.
The number one way to increase
extraction in any brew is to increase
the amount of solvent that you're
putting over the coffee. So that will
greatly increase the extraction. I think
we could overall lower the extraction or
maybe not lower it at all if we have a
more even extraction by going a bit coarser.
All right, we went a little bit coarser.
We're going to aim for the same yield
[Music]
There we are. Let's see where the
pressure gets to. Only about three bar.
I did not go too too much coarser
either. And we're going to stop it at
about 47.
There we go. Perfect. Now, this should
be at a 16-second shot. What this should
allow me to have is a lot more retaining
of volatile aromatics that greatly
actually that mainly contribute to
taste. So, it's a much sweeter smelling
kind of uh candied grape that's going on
And that's perfect. Wow. That is that is
an intense flavor bomb. But I got rid of
the sourness. I was able to retain all
of that sweetness, all of that fruiness
without getting that intense bitterness
that can happen when you push extraction
too far. I would never recommend pushing
pushing pushing extraction on heavily
processed coffees. That's the the point
of those is to maintain a lower
extraction to focus on the process
that's imparting the heavy amount of
flavor. If you want to focus on teroir,
then go with a washed coffee. If you
want to focus on intense flavors, these
heavy processes can be fun, but you
really need to understand how to
approach them in order to get the most
out of them. Now, if you have a darker
roasted coffee that's heavily processed,
you're likely going to hit a higher
pressure than what I'm doing here. This
is a very lightly roasted, heavily
processed coffee. But the idea, the
approach is going to stay largely the
same as far as your approach with how
coarse or fine to go, your approach with
how much to extract, and your approach
with kind of understanding the taste.
So, with this, I think we've kind of
nailed it on the second try.
We have that intensity right up front
that punches you without it being
imbalanced. We have, and now I'm
salivating from it. We have a really
nice balanced uh kind of mouth feel.
Everything's held together by a
mouthfield that is coating my tongue
without being overwhelming. The
sweetness, the juiciness, all of that
fits together really well. I know this
isn't traditional, but again, if you're
seeking out these coffees, you're not
looking for traditional. So, keep that
in mind. I know that I'm breaking a lot
of brains in this, but I wanted to show
you some extremes in order to help you
as you're jumping into this world. Oh,
and of course, I would ru the day that I
don't give Ugo a taste test.
That's nice.
The coffee is not your thing, though. No,
No,
I have been the coach of two world brie.
Whether that was with Andrea Allen using
the GXO where we pulled 15 to 16 second
shots on the world stage and got
incredibly high marks for it. And the
thing is is you're not seeing the
pressure at the group head on these
commercial machines. So, we're just
seeing the time come out. No one's
worrying about it. If you have a
pressure gauge, do not freak out about
it. There are professional top of the
top of the world people with in front of
calibrated judge judging panels that are
pulling shots that are graded highly on
balance, on acidity, on sweetness that
are pulling sub4 bar shots. Okay, it's
not a new thing. It's been going on for
a bit in the competition circuit when it
comes to those heavy processed coffees.
When it comes to ultra light, this also
isn't a new thing. When you look onto
like the decent espresso forms where
people are doing lots of different
trials and playing around with different
shots, some of the most kind of famous
profiles are very low pressure shots
that are below three or four bar of
pressure. So, this is not some sort of
new earth shaking thing. But what I'm
trying to do is really iterate home the
fact that the best tasting coffee is
probably not going to be at nine bar if
you're drinking lighter roasted coffees.
And that leads me to aged coffee. When
you have a really old coffee, it is
going to be very hard to build a lot of
pressure because that CO2 is gone.
Resistance of the puck plus the flow
rate of the machine is what gives us
pressure. Carbon dioxide is a main
contributor of that. Of course, our
grind size is going to be a massive
contributor, but our carbon dioxide is
also contributing. So when water goes
into the puck, it is entering those
grounds and it's forcing carbon dioxide
out before it's able to really situate
inside fully saturated to begin
diffusion. Diffusion is our main way of
getting our extraction. Yes, you can
have washing that goes on getting some
of the flavor, but that's going to be
mostly insoluble material. To get the
soluble material, we rely on diffusion.
In order to get there, carbon dioxide
must be displaced. This gives us
pressure. Okay. So, not only does grind
size give pressure, but so does carbon
dioxide. When we have an old coffee that
is maybe not stored very well, that's
not been sealed up very properly, we
have lost a ton of that carbon dioxide
that was built up during the roast. And
again, lighter roasted coffees, less
carbon dioxide built up in the roast.
Darker roasted, more built up during the
roast. So, when we have something like
this, please know it is going to be very
difficult to hit nine bar unless you're
willing to go powder fine. And again,
the more powdery your powder, the more
bitter the espresso will be. Also, the
more heterogeneous the extraction, which
will lead to imbalance. That's what
we're trying to get away from. We want a
balanced shot. Yes, at the expense of
crema, because balance is key. If you're
only searching for crema, do me a favor.
Only buy darker roasted coffee and only
brew it when it's fresh. You will get
crema galore almost regardless of how
you dial it in. But we'll go over that
on the next coffee. So, let's go ahead.
We're going to start where we left off.
It's always a nice place once you're in
this kind of this kind of area. So,
we're just going to do a 19 gram dose
and we're going to see what it looks like.
like.
Also, I kind of like that this bag kind
of matches. I mean, it's a little bit
off, but it kind of matches. Oh, I
dropped it.
Because today's video is brought to you
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And why are they bringing you today's
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video.
Huh, I found it. Okay, that was a weird
excursion, but let's continue on. We've
weighed out our dose. Let's grind it.
All right, we got our puck loaded up.
All right, so we are actually Whoops,
there's a little leak there. Didn't
tighten that in enough. All good. We can
still get a rough idea of where this is
going to pull.
Sometimes that happens. You know, you
got to roll with the punches. All right.
So, we're going to do that one to two
and a half. All right. So, that stayed
actually at pretty high pressure the
whole time around seven bar even with
that little leakage cuz I didn't lock in
the PA filter all the way. I don't want
to waste coffee, though. I'm still going
to try it. That little leakage is not
going to lessen the pressure all that
much. We fixed it halfway through. So,
let's go ahead stir this up. Give it a
little sippy sip. And uh hopefully it'll
be good enough for us to make a
decision. These are real life issues.
And so, I'm not going to cut this out
and repool because you may do this at
home. And I would urge you to go ahead
and try it. It won't be that far off
from if that weren't to happen. Yes,
some water drops got in. Yes, it
probably uh the the leak of a seal is
probably going to affect it a little
bit, but it's not as much as you think
when you catch it and you push it back
in. All right.
Okay. There's some acidity there, but
there's also what I like to say fibrous
bitterness. And when I when I say
fibrous, it's referring to this taste I
get when I think a coffee has been
pushed too far. Um it's it's it's mostly
on the finish and it kind of has a woody
taste. it kind of has like I don't know
it's fibrous and that that's always a
signal to me that it's gone a bit too
far which I'm not surprised by. I think
the fact that it built up that much
pressure with such an old coffee is
probably telling me something. Hey,
you're going really fine in order to get
that much pressure. Let's say that you
have um a machine that has 7 ml a second
coming out of it. So something with a
higher flow rate than this, which is
very possible with uh uh with any
espresso machine with a vibratory pump
or if you have a rotary pump for
instance and it's up to eight or nine
mills a second, the pressure is going to
react differently than what I'm doing
here. If you try to emulate this, even
if you were to emulate the grind size
exactly, everything's identical, your
shot will have a different pressure
because the input flow rate is higher.
So it's a simple equation and I've
brought this up many times but input
flow rate times the resistance is what
gives us pressure. So let's say I have X
flow rate I have Y resistance and I have
Z pressure
everything is just very nice simple
structure the the absolute values of X Y
and Z. Now if you have the same Y, you
have the same resistance, you have the
same coffee, same roastate, same
grinder, same grind size, but your X,
your input flow is higher. So we have X
squared or X+1 or 2X, whatever you have,
that is going to make the Z higher. Of
course, the Z changes throughout. It's
not a static Z value, right? Because as
you're extracting, your resistance is
going to decrease. So at any given
moment, that Z is going to go down
because the resistance is going down.
But let's say right at the beginning,
your pressure will be higher immediately
because there's more flow coming out
which is pushing more onto that puck of
coffee. So you could maintain 9 bar for
a longer period of time because more
water coming out than my machine here
is. So mine will lose pressure faster
because the resistance is going down and
the flow rate isn't nearly as high. Your
higher flow rate, it'll maintain the
pressure a bit longer before it cascades
down. So please keep that in mind. Some
of these shots might be a bit higher
pressure because it's able to give more
water or it could hold pressure longer
I'm going to go a bit coarser and I'm
going to pull a shot again. We'll likely
see a dip in pressure which is again
aok.ok.ok.ok.ok.ok.ok.ok.ok.ok. Okay.
Some people clip videos clip that. Nine
bar overrated. Don't worry about it. If
it hits it, cool. If it tastes good. If
it doesn't hit it, cool. If it tastes
good, we don't care. Okay, that's the
All right, we've gone a bit coarser.
And here we go. Pressure is building.
Oh, there we go. We only hit about three
bar, which is more what I would expect
with a coffee this light and this old.
And there we have it. Boom. Look at
that. 16 seconds. We're on a turbo train today.
That's what I want with this coffee.
That is giving me really nice texture.
Actually, creamy texture. I know you may
be thinking, "Oh my goodness, how can it
be creamy? There's not much crema."
Here's the thing. Crema, the
polysaccharides, the the lipids in that,
yes, that can give you a tactile feeling
that is difficult to replicate. But
there are other things that contribute
to body. Why do you think you can have
three different filter coffees all at
the same concentration and one of them
can be described as yogurty, one can be
described as teaike, one can be
described as, you know, milky, whatever
it might be. There is obviously
something much more than just the lipids
and the polysaccharides that build up
that thick foam of crema that is causing
mouth. Something other than just
concentration causing mouth and tactile
experience. There are there's lots of
new research. I've covered some of it in
recent video. We'll do more in the
future, but just know it's not all about
crema to get that mouth feel. You can
get a really creamy mouth feel even with
what seems to be a thin shot. It's not
all about the thickness of the coffee.
If it were, then a 20 TDS coffee is
going to give you the best mouth feel,
which is not true. Try one and you'll be
disgusted. Okay. However, there are some
people who like them and okay, you know,
it is what it is. Uh I don't like them. All right,
that's actually perfect. It tastes like
like a really nice Kenya shot of
espresso. Is it nearly as pungent? No.
Is that a bad thing? No. It's balanced.
There's no bad aftertaste. I'm talking
All right. You like it? Yeah. It's like
5 months off roast. Yes. And I noticed
it wasn't even sealed. So, it's probably
been sitting unsealed for like four
months. Okay. So, that's the Kenya.
That's how you do an aged coffee. Lower
temperature if you can. faster shots.
Understand that it's going to want you
to go finer. If you're obsessed with
your 30 secondond shot, you'll have to
go super fine the older a coffee gets
because it's losing carbon dioxide. But
if you don't have to do that, I'm not if
you don't have to do that, you can just
say, "Screw you carbon dioxide. I don't
care that you're gone. I'm not changing
the grind size. We're going to let that
pressure dip. We're going to get some
juice." Get some juice. Okay, let's move
on to the next one. Now, invariably
there will be people coming after me in
the comments because those first four
shots of espresso were thin and they
were not traditional and they were not
Italian. And I know I get them I get
comments like this on so many videos.
So, a lot of times I would use darker
roasted coffee and b-roll just to be
above it. So, people are like, "Oh, that
shot didn't look like espresso. You
don't know espresso." So, you know, I'm
I'm over it. I don't really care. But
invariably there are going to be those
of you saying the Italians are laughing
at you Americans because of your shots
of espresso doing too much. This isn't
the same thing. It's like a Michelin
star chef or James Beard chef telling a
McDonald's, you know, line chef, you're
not making that burger right. They're
two different categories or two
different things altogether. In the same
way, specialty coffee, really lightly
roasted coffee is a very different thing
to traditional Italian. I'm not saying
one is better than the other. I'm saying
they're two different things. and to
take your criteria from one and put it
onto the other is you're just you've
lost. So now we're going to get this.
And for those of you that think Italian
way is the only way, well, I think
you'll be happy with how we approach
this. There's a reason the Italians have
done it the same way for so long, and
it's cuz well, it works. The darker your
coffee is, the bigger the sweet spot is.
This is why so many people attribute
certain grinders giving you chocolate
bombs. It's not necessarily the case.
The darker your coffee, the more
chocolaty your coffee, the easier it is
to extract. The more wide your particle
distribution is on a grinder, the easier
it is to get into that window where it
tastes pretty good. So, with this, I'm
going to go a bit coarser because I
already know right off the bat that this
is going to cause more fines during the
grind. It has a lot more carbon dioxide
due to the fact that it's roasted so
much darker and it's a relatively fresh
roast about 2 weeks off roast. So,
because of all those factors, I'm going
to go ahead guess a bit coarser and
we're going to see where it pulls on the
first shot. It's likely going to
maintain nine bar the whole time or 9
and a half whatever it's kind of sitting
at and we're going to have a thick thick
thick boy shot or that's at least the
goal if we don't get it on the first try
which I'm guessing on the grind size we
just went from a light roast that's old
to a dark roast. Well, we'll get there.
All right, let's see how far off on the
All right, pressure is going up. All
right, so it is still fast. We went a
little too coarse. We overdid it. But I
mean, look at the creme. Look at the
crema. We're only at five bar. But look
at the creme. We're going to do just
under a 1:2 ratio. Actually, I just went
just over 1:2. And that was in 17
seconds. So, I didn't need to go as
coarse. I overcorrected, it seems. So,
we're going to go back fine. And this
should absolutely fix it. But even
still, we're going to give it a taste
cuz it may be fantastic. I will say I do
find with darker coffees that turbos
don't work nearly as well. One of the
big things with darker coffees is you
really want that intense texture. As we
saw, coarser grinds do give you better
crema than than finer. But when you go
too fast and you don't have enough
contact time, you need to get a bigger
yield. Bigger yields with darker roast
is gross because you get dryness,
bitterness, all that gross stuff that we
don't want. But if you go to a normal
ratio, like a 1:1 and a half or so with
with these coffees, which is what you
kind of want because they're giving off
their goodies so quickly, you don't need
to extend extraction. Uh well, then it
it doesn't taste very good. But anyway,
we'll try anyway.
drinkable, but nowhere near as good as
it can be. It's kind of Yeah, it's just
it's hard to describe when you have an
under extracted dark roasted coffee.
It's a hard thing to describe because
sometimes it can be salty. I pulled a 1
to2 though. So, if I were to have
stopped it at 1 to one and a half, which
is what I want to do, uh this would be
pretty salty. But it is it's fine. It's
kind of boring. There's not much going
on. Normally with this coffee, I get
toasted marshmallow. I get burnt
vanilla. I get some uh really nice
bitter chocolate. Uh, and I'm not really
getting any of that right now. It's just
kind of weak and and a little bitter.
So, we we just went finer. Let's get our
Water's filling the puck. We start to
see pressure. And there comes the first
few drops. And we're up to nine bar.
There we go. This is how I like it.
Pulling a little fast, but I I kind of
like that. We're down to about eight
bar. And we're going to stop it right
there. There we go. 18 seconds. Maybe a
little fast, but I'm going to expect
this to be pretty decent. We can always
That is That is thick. I mean, you see
this? This is black coffee. Okay. Like
my boy Tony Cash after a nice dish of
pasta. You see this right here? Espresso.
Espresso.
Black with no sugar and no milk. Just
like a real man drinking his coffee.
Right after a plate of pasta. It's not
bad. I'll do one more. Little finer.
Extend it past 20 seconds. We should be golden.
All right, let's get that shot of pulling.
pulling.
This one's for you, Tony Cash. [Music]
[Music]
Oh, we got them thick drops of syrup
coming into the cup, cascading into a
beautiful coalescence of golden gobules,
spheres dancing in the light as we
anticipate the golden libation caressing
our tongue. Look at that. 23 seconds.
That's That's about as perfect as it
gets. We got tiger striping. That
reminds me of the Indian forests where
we have the large cat, the black and
orange tiger, roaming and prowling as a
predator does. We stir it up and as we
have the final anticipation before it
hits our lips, we say a little thank you.
you. Cheers.
And that's what I'm looking for.
light, fluffy on the tongue, caressing
me, hugging me, giving me chills down my
body as I think back on the all the
people who gave us the espresso, not
only the machines, but the beans as we
go back to origin. Absolutely fantastic.
Just beautiful. Forget about it. Now, I
will let Ugo taste this, but just so
you're aware, in the same way he hates
processed coffees, he does not like dark
coffees. So, get ready for a sound of
It's not bad. Hey,
we won the game. We got approval from my
boy. Okay.
Messy. All right. So, that is it.
Whenever you're brewing coffees,
pressure red herring. Don't you worry
about it. If you're not hitting nine bar
for the whole shot, it's okay. Forget
about it. As Tony Cash would say. If
we're using really processed coffees, we
don't want to push extraction too hard.
Old coffees, we don't want to push
extraction too hard. We're using ultra
light coffees, we don't want to go
crazy. In fact, I don't like high
pressure. I want to go coarse as
possible while still having a good
beverage. When we have a Nordic style
coffee that's fresh, we can do that
typical 1 to 2 and 1/2. And we're going
to live in that golden zone. Now,
obviously, this this video featured more
uh modern styles of shot pooling for a
lighter side of the world. If you're a
medium dark roast drinker, I would
approach it like I did with the Saka.
Again, this is in a world standard, I
would call this actually a medium roast.
For those of you that are coming from a
specialty background, this is going to
be dark. Okay? So, that's the issue with
using light and dark roast kind of
nomenclature because depending on who
you are and your exposure to coffee,
this could be either incredibly dark or
it could be actually kind of light. If
you're someone that enjoys medium or
darker coffees, go with this. If you
drink from a specialty, unless they have
a dedicated dark roast, I would follow
my advice from the Kopi. If anything,
you can do a little shorter extraction
if it is not as light as something like
this, maybe a 1 to 2.2. I would stay
away from exactly 1 to two or below,
unless you're drinking a darker coffee.
You'll have a bit more sourness in your
espresso. But remember, yield is the
number one way to increase your
extraction. Going higher in temperature
will increase it some, but it's going to
be extracting things you don't
necessarily want. I always find it's
much more bitter when you go higher in
the in the temperature department. Rely
on that yield. Rely on a coarser grind
size and you're going to be a happy
camper. That is enough for me today.
Thank you so much for watching. If this
was helpful, let me know in the comments
below because it does help me inform
future videos. If you enjoyed the
content, of course, I would love a like
and subscribe. Check out the Patreon
down below. We have a cool Discord
that's related to the Patreon. I do some
lives there very frequently, actually,
and we can get on there and chat and
have a good time, brew coffees. So,
thank you so much for watching. I hope
that you brew something tasty today. And cheers.
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